Secondhand Inertia

Don’t mess with the hothead—or he might just mess with you. Slater Ibáñez is only interested in two kinds of guys: the ones he wants to punch, and the ones he sleeps with. Things get interesting when they start to overlap.

A chance conversation in his neighborhood with an astrology-obsessed merchant leads Slater deep into the Mojave Desert, where he digs into the last days of a junkie who overdosed in the wilderness near Twentynine Palms. He hooks up with Zeke, and hires him as a guide to the backcountry, where he soon discovers the guy has some odd beliefs about the land.

After Slater confronts some bougie lowlife rock climbers, the case leads him to small-town twelve-step meetings, where he finds out that things aren’t as they seem. Jason from the group loans him a motorcycle, and Slater gets involved with a classic car guy named Wheels, a smoke-show who’s obsessed with lucid dreaming. Hanging out with the twelve-steppers, an uncomfortable realization strikes him—Slater isn’t just undercover in this world; he’s an addict like they are.

Meanwhile, Pike is getting exasperated that Slater has accumulated more classic cars and that in his work he’s pushing the boundary between what’s legal and what might get him tossed in the hoosegow. Taking a job in a thrift store to stalk a local grifter, Slater tries to avoid the goons who are after Jason while staying below the radar of the cops. As things heat up, Slater gets roped into an illicit gig, out in the Mojave wildlands, to rob a train.

Freelance investigator Slater trolls the dark side of Los Angeles, rooting out insurance fraud, not afraid to use whatever means necessary to get things done, and not about to hold back with his fists. A queer antihero for a new age, Slater walks the line between ordinary life and the frayed fringes of society, keeping his balance with the back-channel support he gets from main squeeze Pike, business partner Max, and operatives Andy and Etta.